128 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



people as no more than " an honest, well- 

 meaning gentleman, but with no capacity for 

 military and only mediocre ability in civil 

 affairs." His place has never been other 

 than first in the three fields in which the 

 celebrated eulogy gave him that position ; 

 and the steady drift toward giving him his 

 proper place in history and his appropriate 

 appreciation as a soldier and statesman which 

 the author acknowledges to have been going 

 on for twenty-five years, was never less con- 

 stant than it is now. Not words of eulog)', 

 but rational appreciation of facts and calm 

 estimates of deeds and appreciation of the 

 bearing of the statesman's counsels .and 

 words constitute the highest admiration ; and 

 in these the American people have not been 

 wanting toward Washington. In this work 

 General Johnson has made a welcome contri- 

 bution to our knowledge of Washington as 

 he was. 



Micro-organisms in Water. Their Signifi- 

 cance, Identification, and Removal. By 

 Percy Fkanklaxd and Mrs. Pkrcy 

 Frankland. New York : Longmans, 

 Green & Co. Pp. 532. Price, $5. 



The {)urpose of this work is to present in 

 a compact shape the results of investigation 

 of the bacteriology of water, the literature of 

 which is extensive and very much scattered. 

 The authors have therefore endeavored to 

 present in it in connected form an ac- 

 count of the more important work that 

 has been carried on in this department, in 

 the hope that it may be of service to the 

 student, the investigator, and those who are 

 practically concerned with the hygienic as- 

 pects of water supply. They give, first, a 

 survey of all the more important general 

 methods of bacteriological study, describing 

 in detail those which are specially applicable 

 to the e.\aminati(m of water; second, an ac- 

 count of the principal results hitherto arrived 

 at by the use of these new bacteriological 

 methods in the study of the different kinds 

 of water, and the changes which they under- 

 go through natural and artificial agencies. 

 Particular attention has also been bestowed 

 on the behavior of pathogenic bacteria in 

 water; and a concise description is appended 

 of the principal characters of all the micro- 

 organisms, num))ering more than two hun- 

 dred, which, so far as the authors have been 



able to ascertain, have hitherto been found 

 in water. The first chapter treats of sterili- 

 zation and the preparation of culture media, 

 describing the forms of sterilizing apparatus 

 and the use of them, and giving directions 

 for the preparation of the media, with esti- 

 mates of their value and particular applica- 

 tion. The second chapter is devoted to the 

 staining and microscopic examination of 

 micro-organisms ; the third, to the examina- 

 tion of water for micro-organisms. In the 

 fourth and part of the fifth chapters, account 

 is given of the numbers of micro-organisms 

 that are found in waters derived from different 

 sources, as ice, hail, rain, rivers, lakes, etc. 

 The various methods of purifying water for 

 drinking purposes are described and dis- 

 cussed in the fifth chapter. The subjects of 

 the succeeding chapters are the multiplica- 

 tion of micro-organisms ; the detection of 

 pathogenic bacteria in water ; the vitality of 

 particular pathogenic bacteria in different 

 waters ; the action of light on micro-organ- 

 isms in water and culture mediums; and 

 tabular desciiptions, with illustrations, of the 

 various micro-organisms found in water. 



How Gertrude teaches her Children. By 

 JoHANN Heixrich Pestalozzi. Trans- 

 lated by Lucy E. Holland and Francis C. 

 Turner, and edited by Ebenezer Cooke. 

 Syracuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 

 256. Price, $1.50. 



This is described on the title-page as an at- 

 tempt, given in the form of a report to the So- 

 ciety of the Friends of Education at Burgdorf, 

 to help mothers to teach their own children, 

 and an account of the method. But little of 

 it has been translated before, those portions 

 given in Biber's Life of Pestalozzi being, ac- 

 cording to the editor, all. There are difficul- 

 ties in the way of translation, on account of 

 the use of peculiar terms for which there is 

 no adequate English rendering. The trans- 

 lators have tried to give a literal translation 

 without paraphrase and without omissions. 

 They do not regard their work as perfect, 

 and will " gladly and thankfully " receive any 

 help which will make the authors' thought 

 still clearer. The translation is preceded 

 by a biographical and historical introduc- 

 tion. The position of this work is de- 

 fined by the editor as along with the Method 

 and the First Letter from Stanz, the place of 

 the method being after Letter I of this 



